New Zealand toured India in 2024/25 for three Test matches and lost the series 3-0. R Kaushik’s tour report as well as all three match reports appeared in the 2025 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
India v New Zealand in 2024/25
Test matches (3): India 0 (0pts), New Zealand 3 (36pts)
New Zealand’s build-up for their three-Test tour of India was anything but promising. Tim Southee had stepped down as captain after a 2-0 defeat in Sri Lanka the previous month, with the baton passing to Tom Latham. Kane Williamson, their star batter and another former captain, had picked up a groin injury that kept him out of the series. And their previous 36 Tests in India had produced only two wins – and 17 defeats.
India, by contrast, seemed set to extend their unparalleled sequence of home series victories. They had made it 18 by beating Bangladesh, which increased their lead at the top of the World Test Championship. A 19th would have left a place in the final within touching distance, even before their five-Test tour of Australia. It was classic David v Goliath. And David it was who ripped the formbook to shreds, inflicting on India a first series defeat at home since Alastair Cook’s England won 2–1 in 2012/13.
New Zealand didn’t just sweep the series 3-0, they bossed it. In seaming conditions at Bengaluru, where India were humiliated for 46 on the first morning, then on spinning surfaces at Pune and Mumbai, they outclassed their hosts. Defeats in the last two Tests were particularly humbling for Rohit Sharma and his men. Despite the presence of a strong pace attack spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the world’s most dangerous all-format bowler, India banked on turning pitches, helping Washington Sundar to 11 wickets in the second Test, and Ravindra Jadeja to ten in the third. But the surfaces brought New Zealand’s left-arm spinners into play, and they filled their boots: Mitchell Santner took 13 wickets in Pune, and Ajaz Patel 11 in Mumbai. That meant Patel had taken 25 of his 85 Test wickets in the city of his birth (and none in his three Tests in New Zealand).
India’s technical and temperamental inadequacies against competent spin were laid bare and, with neither Rohit nor Virat Kohli among the runs, they did not enjoy the expected morale-boosting warm-up before Australia.
New Zealand touring party to India, 2024/25
*TWM Latham, TA Blundell, MG Bracewell, MS Chapman, DP Conway, JA Duffy, MJ Henry, DJ Mitchell, WP O’Rourke, AY Patel, GD Phillips, R Ravindra, MJ Santner, IS Sodhi, TG Southee, KS Williamson, WA Young. Coach: GR Stead.
BV Sears was originally selected, but failed to recover from a knee injury, and was replaced by Duffy. Chapman was called up after Williamson suffered a groin injury, which kept him out of all three Tests. Bracewell departed on paternity leave after the first Test, and was replaced by Sodhi.
First Test at Bengaluru, October 16-20, 2024
New Zealand won by eight wickets. New Zealand 12pts. Toss: India.
By the time the captains walked out for the toss on the second morning – the first day had been abandoned – the pitch had been sweating under covers for more than four days. And though Latham called wrong, Rohit Sharma chose to bat, influenced by the Indian think tank’s misreading of conditions. This had convinced them to include a third spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, at the expense of a third fast bowler, Akash Deep, who had just done well against Bangladesh.
Within a few deliveries, it was obvious batting would be a challenge. The ball jagged around, and New Zealand’s three seamers relished the bounce. But no one expected the calamitous collapse that followed. India were shot out for 46, by a distance their lowest total at home. Only Jaiswal and Pant reached double figures, and there were five ducks. Henry’s five wickets took him to 100 in his 26th Test – only Richard Hadlee (25) had got there more quickly for New Zealand – while O’Rourke, in only his fifth Test, backed him up superbly with four for 22. At stumps, with New Zealand in control at 180-3, Rohit acknowledged that his decision to bat had rebounded. This was a rarity in Indian cricket, where the tendency to pass the buck is more pronounced than elsewhere.
Next day, New Zealand pulled further away. Rachin Ravindra, whose parents hail from Bengaluru, treated the crowd (and his family) to a wonderful exhibition, fusing Kiwi grit with Asian wristiness, and making up for the absence of the injured Kane Williamson. India fought back to reduce New Zealand to 233-7, raising hopes they could keep the lead to manageable proportions.
But Ravindra and Southee stymied that with a rollicking eighth-wicket stand of 137 at better than a run a ball. Ashwin’s last over cost 20, his most expensive in a Test, and the second new ball did nothing to stem the flow, before Siraj finally got rid of Southee for 65. With Ravindra last out for 134, New Zealand had a lead of 356. Despite the rain, excellent drainage meant time was not a factor when India started their second innings with more than two and a half days left.
What a riposte it was. Rohit and Jaiswal got the hosts off to a frenetic start, as they reiterated their faith in attacking batting. Taking their cue from the opening salvo, Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan (playing because Shubman Gill had a stiff neck) kept hammering away. Not even Kohli’s dismissal, caught behind for 70 off Phillips from the last ball of the third day, not long after completing 9,000 Test runs, held India up. Sarfaraz, who went on to a maiden hundred, and Pant turned on the heat next morning, and New Zealand must have feared the worst as India scorched to 400-3 after 80 overs. But the new ball precipitated a second collapse in three days. This time, seven tumbled for 54, including Pant for 99, his seventh ninety in his 36th Test, to go with six hundreds. Henry and O’Rourke shared six wickets.
New Zealand needed only 107, on a surface that now held few fears. Latham fell in the first over, but Young and Ravindra calmly guided them home with eight wickets to spare. It was New Zealand’s first Test win on Indian soil since November 1988 in Bombay, when (and where) only one of the current side was born – Ajaz Patel, who was barely a month old.
Player of the match: R Ravindra.
Second Test At Pune, October 24–26, 2024
New Zealand won by 113 runs. New Zealand 12pts. Toss: New Zealand.
Having been grateful to lose the toss in Bengaluru, Latham was happy to call correctly in Pune, setting New Zealand up for another momentous win. A black-soil surface was decent for batting on the first day, before helping the spinners. And two men drafted in for only the third Test at the MCA International Stadium enjoyed themselves: Washington Sundar’s 11-wicket haul was bettered by Santner’s 13, which set up New Zealand’s 113-run victory, and made them the first team since England 12 years earlier to win a Test series in India. For the next 18 series, India had amassed a phenomenal record at home, winning 42 Tests and losing four. Now, within a week, they had been beaten twice by New Zealand.
Sundar had played the last of his four Tests more than three and a half years earlier, against England at Ahmedabad. His recall was because New Zealand had three left-handers in their top four, while the management also thought his tidy off-breaks added control. Sundar comfortably outbowled Ashwin, sparking debate about India’s spin-bowling hierarchy.
New Zealand rode on half-centuries from Conway and Ravindra, plus a breezy 33 from Santner, to reach 259, worth many more on this pitch. At Bengaluru, Ravindra had been happy to come down the track to negate the spinners, but now he and Conway used the sweep and reverse sweep to telling effect, throwing Ashwin and Jadeja off their rhythm. Sundar, though, took the last seven wickets, to finish with his best first-class figures.
For the second Test running, India’s first innings came up short. Having been overwhelmed by the seam and bounce of Henry and O’Rourke a week earlier, they had no answer to the relentless Santner. He had not taken more than three in an innings in 28 previous Tests, but fell back on his white-ball expertise, varying his pace and angles. Because one delivery would go straight on after pitching, and another might turn from the same spot, he kept the batsmen guessing, threatening both edges as well as the front pad; six of his seven first-innings victims were either lbw or bowled.
India were shot out for 156, a deficit of 103, which New Zealand built on through Latham’s only substantial innings of the tour. Useful runs down the order from Blundell and Phillips helped set India 359. Only once previously (against England at Chennai in December 2008) had a bigger target been successfully chased down on Indian soil, but that was by a batting line-up which included Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman.
Undeterred, India came out with all guns blazing. Jaiswal completed 1,000 Test runs at home for the calendar year and, at 96-1, with Gill comfortable, they had made a good start. Then the golden arm of Santner struck again, forcing first Gill, then Jaiswal – for a 65-ball 77 – to edge to slip, where Mitchell caught everything all series. It didn’t take long for the wheels to come off. The run-out of Pant – trying a risky single after Kohli pushed Patel to Santner’s left at backward point – exposed Indian uncertainty, while Kohli’s travails against left-arm spin continued with another lbw dismissal. Santner ended up with six more wickets, as India tamely surrendered their proud home record.
Player of the match: MJ Santner.
Third Test at Mumbai, November 1–3, 2024
New Zealand won by 25 runs. New Zealand 12pts. Toss: New Zealand.
“If Santner doesn’t get you, Patel must.” That might have been New Zealand’s latest war cry after inflicting an unprecedented 3–0 sweep on India in their own back yard, with Latham becoming the first visiting captain to win every Test in a series of more than two matches (South Africa won two out of two in 1999/2000). This victory was crafted by slow left-armer Ajaz Patel who, three years previously at the same venue, had emulated Jim Laker and Anil Kumble by picking up all ten in a Test innings.
Patel had played second fiddle in the second Test but, in his native city, he assumed the lead role after his fellow left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner – who had bowled 48.3 overs at Pune – was forced out with a side strain. Patel stepped up, snaffling 11 wickets as India’s celebrated batting line-up were again diffident against spin.
With the ball turning from the start on the red-soil pitch, India negated New Zealand’s luck at the toss by spinning them out for 235, thanks to smart spells from Washington Sundar and Jadeja. Young, Kane Williamson’s stand-in, was the visitors’ unsung hero. He was impeccable in defence, and his shot selection exemplary during a measured 71; he and the more adventurous Mitchell put on 87 for the fourth wicket.
Despite losing Rohit cheaply again, India looked in charge as Jaiswal and Gill shared a sparkling stand of 53. Then, a quarter of an hour before the close, Jaiswal attempted a reverse sweep against Patel, and lost his leg stump. It was the first of three wickets in eight deliveries in a chaotic passage of play: nightwatchman Siraj was pinned in front first ball, before Kohli ran himself out in the final over attempting a single to Henry at mid-on. Gill and the irrepressible Pant drove India forward next morning with contrasting half-centuries, before Sundar pushed them in front with a frenetic unbeaten 38. Patel went for plenty, but kept striking vital blows to restrict the lead to 28.
Young played another superb hand, making 51 before being outfoxed by Ashwin, who belatedly slipped into a rhythm, and showed off his carrom ball. Jadeja, who had beaten the bat repeatedly at Pune, found greater joy with his second five-wicket haul of the match. When New Zealand were bowled out early on the third morning, the target was a modest 147.
Rohit tried to grab the initiative, but perished in the third over, aiming to pull Henry. Not for the first time, the captain’s departure opened the floodgates. Limp footwork and injudicious choice of strokes played into Patel’s hands and, in no time, India were 29-5, in front of a shocked, disbelieving crowd of more than 20,000. While Pant was still there, they didn’t lose hope. Batting as if on a shirtfront, he forged ahead, first with Jadeja, then Sundar, until he was adjudged caught off bat and pad, even though there did not appear to be conclusive evidence for TV umpire Paul Reiffel to overturn Richard Illingworth’s not-out verdict. Pant, who had struck 64 from 57 balls, trudged off, after failing to convince the umpires otherwise. The New Zealanders were adamant they heard two sounds. Hot Spot technology might have helped, but it has never been used in Tests in India.
Pant’s exit was the decisive moment, and Patel struck the final blow, cleaning up Sundar, and sending New Zealand into ecstasy. “Until that last wicket fell, I certainly didn’t think it was over,” said Latham.
Player of the match: AY Patel. Player of the series: WA Young.
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